http://www.yardbarker.com/users/PeterSchiller Recent Yardbarker Articles: PeterSchiller en-us It seems as if no one in the NL West wants first place. It is truly sad when the Rangers would be in 1st place if after the All Star break if they were in the NL and they're only 4 games over .500. No NL West team is above .500 as of July 21, 2008. So what seems to be the problem? Could it be that most teams in both leagues are having difficulty winning on the road, a 2008 phenomenon? It's not that these teams lack talent, they're just not performing. The San Diego Padres have good pitching with Jake Peavy, Chris Young (before the injury), Greg Maddux and Randy Wolfe, but 40 year old Trevor Hoffman might just be showing his age despite having only 3 blown saves thus far. Their infield is OK with Adrian Gonzalez (1B) having another great year in a non-hitter friendly park, Khalil Greene at SS and Kevin Kouzmanoff is solid at 3B. Where they need help is at catcher (due to injury) and the OF. They're not even playing .500 baseball at home, let alone only having 15 road wins so far and their runs scored/against difference is a - 99. Geoff Young, author of the Padres blog "Ducksnorts", if you're reading this, what is your take on the situation that has plagued them so far this year? The San Francisco Giants started out well, but now find themselves close to the bottom of the division which is where most people expected them to be this year. Sorry Giant fans, but it's true. Now don't get too depressed, look on the bright side. You have two great young pitchers in Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum and if Barry Zito can learn to breathe out of his eyelids once again, he might round out one of the best starting three rotation in the major leagues. Your outfield is also in decent shape with Aaron Rowand in center, Randy Winn in right and the young speedster Fred Lewis in left. But your infield is a mess especially after Ray Durham was traded. Now you only have Rich Aurilia (1B/SS/3B) when he's healthy, but he's not the player he once was. As for your catcher, Benjie Molina, his better days are behind him although he is having a decent year. He still shouldn't be a cleanup hitter. That right there should tell you something! J It has recently been mentioned that manager Bruce Bochy has informed SS Omar Vizquel that his playing time will be reduced in the second half so that they can see what they have for young talent at the position. His glove work is still one of the best in the game, even in his 40's, but he's below the Mendoza line offensively. Can someone over at Bay City Ball or The Giants Baseball Blog shed some light on the direction their team is going towards. The Colorado Rockies have a potent line up when healthy, especially at Coors Field, but find themselves 7 games out of first place and smack dab in the middle of this division. What I see as a number one problem is the last of good solid pitching. They lost a few arms from the starting rotation and the bullpen from their trip to the World Series last year. They do still have their ace in Aaron Cook and their young gunslinger in Ubaldo Jimenez, but he is too inconsistent to be a number two starter in nasty Coors Field. In Coors park, you need a good pitching staff to survive, even with the Humidor. Young SS Troy Tulowitzki has been either slumping or hurt for most of the year so far (2 stints on the DL) and things have gotten so bad that there are rumors of trading set up man/closer Brian Fuentes and/or LF Matt Holliday who was once again an All Star and is even signed through 2009. They still have the speedy Willy Taveras in CF and Brad Hawpe, but even he is struggling as he always does against lefties. Then there's 3B Garrett Adtkins who is currently playing 1B for the injured Todd Helton (back woes). Their runs scored, by no surprise is the best in the division, but it is dwarfed by their division high runs allowed which leaves them with a negative split (-75) that is worse than the SF Giants. This might be a stretch, but I think this stat tells a lot. Maybe someone over at Purple Row can elaborate more on the state of the Rockies for us. We're all eyes and ears! The Los Angeles Dodgers have a new manager this year and with him comes a wealth of knowledge about how to win at this game. As you all know, it's the well respected Joe Torre, formally the manager of the NY Yankees for the previous 12 seasons. They host the lowest runs against total in the division at 405 and that's with # 1 starter Brad Penny, RP Scott Proctor, SP Jason Schmidt and closer Takashi Saito on the DL for the better parts of this year. Starters Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley and especially their rookie from Japan, Hiroki Kuroda have held the fort so far this year. They have gone to the youth movement for most of the year, a smart move if you ask me, with James Loney at 1B, Blake DeWitt at 3B with Matt Kemp and Andre Either in the OF to go along with fellow outfielders Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones, who currently just came off the DL and has been disappointing when healthy. SS Rafael Furcal started off hot as a firecracker, but landed on the DL not too long into the season and is now out for the year with a back injury. Nomar Garciaparra is now back at SS at least until they find a replacement. Nomar just isn't the same player he was in Boston. His fielding and power have both gone south due to various injuries. Both Jeff Kent (2B) and Russell Martin (C) are having typical years for the Dodgers. In Martin's case, that means an All Star performance yet again while also filling in at 3B (the position he was drafted in) for a few games due to injuries to DeWitt and Nomar. Typical set up man Jonathan Broxton has also been his typical good self even when called upon to close when Saito's been hurt or on the DL. What insight can Dodger Thoughts, from the baseball toaster add to this discussion? The Arizona Diamondbacks are also going young and were lights out to start the year, but soon fizzled out come May and have continued to do so thus far into July, too. As an example, the injury to Eric Brynes not only slowed him down and kept him from stealing bases, but he is now lost for most, if not all of the season. This has forced them to switch 1B Conor Jackson to LF duties and now rookie RF Justin Upton is also on the DL (oblique) as of the 19th. Upton's injury has placed utility man Chris Burke into a starting role in RF. The pitching has been very good most of the time with starters Brandon Webb, newly acquired during the off season Dan Haren, Doug Davis (even after his short cancer scare), Micah Owings and 45 year old Randy Johnson. Owings started off red hot, but has recently cooled off considerably in the past month or so due to control issues and the like. Their relief pitchers are highlighted by Set up man Tony Pena (who might close some day), Chad Qualls, Doug Slaten and current closer Brandon Lyon. The remaining infielders aren't too shabby either with Orlando Hudson at 2B, Stephen Drew (J.D.'s little brother) at SS and Mark Reynolds at 3B with Chad Tracy back from injury playing 1B, but will now be platooning with recently re-aquired 1B Tony Clark and Chris Snyder behind the plate. Anything to add from the desert on behalf of their team from either AZ Snakepit or MVN's Out in the Desert? This is really a two team race right now unless something drastic happens between the two teams who are currently tied for first, but are both still under .500; the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks. Joe Torre is an advantage for the Dodgers, but I still like the talent on the Diamondbacks to take this division. NL WEST W L PCT GB HOME PCT ROAD PCT RS RA DIFF Arizona 49 50 .495 - 29-21 .580 20-29 .408 437 432 5 LA Dodgers 49 50 .495 - 25-24 .510 24-26 .480 422 405 17 Colorado 43 58 .426 7 29-22 .569 14-36 .280 457 532 -75 San Francisco 40 58 .408 8.5 17-31 .354 23-27 .460 392 464 -72 San Diego 38 62 .380 11.5 23-30 .434 15-32 .319 376 475 -99 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:59:47 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/294281 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/294281 Because this is only a 3 or 4 game sample size, we are seeing players who would not normally make it onto this list. You should also take into account, the lesser amount of games when you look at the table below, remember, this is only over 3 or 4 games. Topping out this shortened week's list is Baltimore 3B Melvin Mora who hit 3 HRs in that short period of time while hitting .400 with an OBP of .500. If the O's are going to be sellers by the trade deadline, Mora might look real good to a team like the Twins or Dodgers who need a solid player at 3B.Another surprise to this list is National's LF Willie Harris who hit for an average of .583 and an OBP of .688 during these few games since the break. He also hit a HR and stole a base in that span of time.The Mets young 3B, David Wright, keeps on boosting his average back towards .300 while hitting .385 with an OBP of .526 since the All Star Game. He also hit 2 HRs and stole a base as well.Cardinals 3B Troy Glaus is slowing showing the power that management thought he still possessed when making the swap with the Blue Jays for Scott Rolen. In these past few games, Troy has hit 3HRs while batting .438 with an OBP of .471. Does anyone know how Rolen is doing for the Jays?Rounding out the top 5 is Baltimore DH/OF Luke Scott who hit 3 HRs while hitting .538 with an OBP of .571 At the bottom end of this top 10 list are San Diego 2B Edgar Gonzalez, KC C/DH Billy Butler, Seattle LF Raul Ibanez, Rockies 2B Jeff Baker and last but not least, All Star LF of the Brewers, Ryan Braun. Player Team P R HR RBI SB AVG OBP Totals Melvin Mora BAL 3B 5 3 7 0 .400 .500 15.900 Willie Harris WAS LF 5 1 7 1 .583 .688 15.271 David Wright NYM 3B 5 2 6 1 .385 .526 14.911 Troy Glaus STL 3B 6 3 5 0 .438 .471 14.909 Luke Scott BAL LF 4 3 6 0 .538 .571 14.109 Edgar Gonzalez SD 2B 6 2 5 0 .444 .474 13.918 Billy Butler KC DH 3 2 7 0 .385 .429 12.814 Raul Ibanez SEA LF 4 2 5 0 .455 .538 11.993 Jeff Baker COL 2B 6 1 3 1 .438 .500 11.938 Ryan Braun MIL LF 3 1 5 1 .462 .533 10.995 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:01:27 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/293297 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/293297 This one surprised me, I was expecting to see either Atlanta's 3B Chipper Jones* or CF Josh Hamilton** of the Rangers on top of this list, but instead, we find Houston's 1B Lance Berkman** just edging out Hamilton. In fact, Jones doesn't even make this top 20 list as he has begun to come down to earth. The big difference between Hamilton and Berkman seems to be stolen bases, average and OBP as the differences in runs scored HRs and RBIs seem to offset themselves. Rounding out the remaining top 5 spots are the Ranger's 2B Ian Kinsler*, Phillies 1B Ryan Howard and their 2B Chase Utley**. Please, no booing, he doesn't like it and I can't say that I blame him. Numbers 6 to 20 are as follows: the Marlins SS Hanley Ramirez**, Pirates CF Nate McLouth*, Mets CF Carlos Beltran, White Sox LF Carlos Quentin*, Indians CF Grady Sizemore* and the Mets 3B David Wright*. Then we have the Mets SS Jose Reyes, the Cardinals OF Ryan Ludwick*, Padres 1B Adrian Gonzalez* and Brewers LF Ryan Braun**. Then there were the Cubs 1B Carlos Lee and the Reds 2B Brandon Phillips who are both having All Star type of years, but hey, they can't all play in the game. Returning to the All Star cast is Marlins 2B Dan Uggla* who might have wished that Phillips was selected in his place (his 3 errors in the game set a new All Star game record) and Cubs 3B Aramis Ramirez*. Lastly, we have D'Backs 3B Mark Reynolds. The Fall Guys These are the players in which I expect to fall out of this top 20 list by the end of the season: Lance Berkman**: I may be wrong, he may just slip to the end of this list due to his great first half. I still do not see him maintaining these type of numbers for a whole year, same thing applies to these next four players except that I do not expect to see them on this list at all come October: Nate McLouth*, Carlos Quentin*, Dan Uggla* and Mark Reynolds. The Real Deals These are the players in which I think will either keep up these numbers, fall just shy of them or might even improve upon them. Josh Hamilton** may not hit 40 HRs and knock in 180 RBIs, but he should be good for at least 35 HRs (and may still hit 40) and 120-130 RBIs with a .300+ average and .360+ OBP. I expect Howards' average to climb back to a more respectable figure (like say maybe .250) and Utley* will make a MVP run. Hanley Ramirez** and Grady Sizemore* are right on track to where they should be but I don't think they'll go 40/40, the HRs may not get that high. Beltran, Reyes, Wright*, Phillips, Lee and Aramis Ramirez* should also all stay the course with their current numbers. *All of these players where reserves on the 2008 All Star team. **All of these players where elected or selected starters in the 2008 All Star game. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:30:36 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/291708 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/291708 Last night was "not a good night for atheists" R.Reilly ESPN At the end of Monday night's 2008 All Star Home Run Derby, Twins 1B Justin Morneau won the title, but Texas CF Josh Hamilton, a born-again Christian, won the hearts of thousands with his heroic first round performance. His climb to the major leagues is a storybook ending, fraught with stumbling blocks that caused him to miss 3 years of playing time due to his addictions (drugs and alcohol abuse). His 35 HRs, which included a first round record breaking performance of hitting 28 Home Runs, travelled over 2.3 miles as he averaged over 440 feet per HR. He has a number of ball that were his over 500 feet and there was talk of him becoming the first to have ever hit one out of famed Yankee Stadium. His first half numbers are just as amazing as his journey to the majors, 21 HRs and 95 RBIs to go along with a .310 batting average and .367 OBP. For more of a back story on Hamilton's past demons and tribulations, click HERE. In this article, you will also find further links to give you a glance into the journey of Josh Hamilton from being drafted to playing in the big leagues. I highly encourage you to read every article, it's a great story of overcoming addiction and adversity. His faith played a huge role in getting him to the big leagues and he doesn't often miss an opportunity to give praise to God for rescuing him from his former life which he fell into. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:09:32 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/291049 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/291049 I love a good underdog story and the offensive performance of the Pirate's OF Nate McLouth, and 2008 NL All Star, is one of those stories. Who would have thought that he'd have a year like the one he's currently enjoying? His line this week was 9/4/9/2/.290/.333 (R/HR/RBI/SB/BA/OBP). Ryan Howard, 1B of the Phirst place Phillies hit 5 HRs this past week while hitting .370, raising his season batting average, which was in need of a lift, to .234 and climbing. Josh Hamilton, CF of the Rangers, and 2008 AL All Star, continues to hit the cover off the ball while maintaining an above .300 average. With this week's 2 HRs, he has surpassed his 2007 season total. Last week also saw him knock in 11 runs as well as stealing 3 bases. To go along with his 3 HRs this week, Indians SS Jhonny Peralta was only one of two players on this week's list to hit .400 or better (.400/.407 BA/OBP). Rounding out the top 5 of this top 10 list of hottest hitters is Boston's 1B and 2008 NL All Star, Kevin Youkilis. The bottom 5 hitters on this list are the White Sox OF and 2008 NL All Star, Carlos Quentin and Ranger's 1B Chris Davis who both hit 3 HRs this week. The next two players on this list both play RF and hit 4 HRs this past week. They are the Cardinal's Ryan Ludwick and the Tiger's Matt Joyce. Last but not least is the Met's CF Carlos Beltran. Player Team P R HR RBI SB AVG OBP Totals Nate McLouth PIT CF 9 4 9 2 .290 .333 24.623 Ryan Howard PHI 1B 7 5 8 0 .370 .452 20.822 Josh Hamilton TEX CF 4 2 11 3 .323 .353 20.676 Jhonny Peralta CLE SS 6 3 10 0 .400 .407 19.807 Kevin Youkilis BOS 1B 6 2 10 0 .348 .370 18.718 Carlos Quentin CHW LF 6 3 9 0 .310 .355 18.665 Chris Davis TEX 1B 8 3 6 0 .321 .367 17.688 Ryan Ludwick STL RF 6 4 7 0 .269 .345 17.614 Matt Joyce DET RF 6 4 6 0 .409 .409 16.818 Carlos Beltran NYM CF 5 2 8 1 .310 .333 16.643 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:41:14 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/290227 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/290227 Is an all star a one dimensional player who can hit the cover off the ball? I would consider a true all star to be a player that is as above average both offensively AND defensively. Willie Mays was one of those rare players, so was Carl Yastrzemski and more recently, players like Dustin Pedroia, Ken Griffey Jr., the younger Barry Bonds and Ivan Rodriguez. These players either had or have gold glove caliber defensive skills (feel free to add any of the many that I've left out in the comments section) to go along with their superior offensive prowess at their position. It is my opinion that in today's game, offense is more sought after by the fans than defense, just look at the All Star game selections every year, or MLB awards such as the MVP or rookie of the year. For example, the winner of last year's NL rookie of the year should have gone to the better all around player, Colorado SS Troy Tulowitzki. Sure the defensive minded have the Gold Glove awards, but hitters get an unfair advantage for both the silver slugger awards and the MVP. A true MVP should also be an outstanding fielder as well, but that's a story for another post! This year, there was an uproar as to why the players in the AL selected Boston's Jason Varitek to be a reserve selection onto the 2008 All Star team. The main complaint has been that he's not the best "hitting" catcher in the AL. Heck, he's only hitting around .220 and his typically good OBP is either just under or just over .300, but what I think the other AL players were taking into consideration is the fact that Varitek is a darn good defensive catcher. He is the only catcher to have ever caught 4 no-hitters! He caught Hideki Nomo's (2001), Derek Lowe's (2002), Clay Buchholz's (last September) and Jon Lester's (this year). To read up on the accomplishment, just click HERE. 12 other catchers have caught 3 and Varitek came one hit away from catching Schilling's attempt last year in Oakland (before Buchholz), but Schilling did what he almost never does, he shook off Varitek. That would have been the 3rd, which would have made Buchholz's the 4th and Lester's his 5th. Here's what Schilling had to say about his 1-hitter after the game, thanks to an article in the Boston Globe by Gordon Edes: "I had a plan," Schilling said. "I shook 'Tek off. And I've got the big 'what if' for the rest of my life." To read the rest of this article, click HERE. For years, the Cardinal's SS Ozzie Smith, the Wizard of OZ, wowed the MLB with his glove and appeared in many All Star games, even when he wasn't hitting well, but he was SO good defensively, who complained? Somewhere down the road, we as fans have missed that ideal in recent years. I say we should embrace great defense as highly s we do offense. Chicks may dig the long ball, but real fans should have a deep appreciation for good, solid defense once again, too! Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:13:30 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289667 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289667 On the heels of the CC Sabathia trade to the Brewers, who are a division rival by the way, the Cubs made a deal of their own. A day after CC went from being an Indian to a Brewer, the A's oft injured stud Rich Harden, along with RP and spot starter Chad Gaudin were sent to the Cubs in exchange for middle of the rotation SP Sean Gallagher, OF Matt Murton, INF/OF Eric Patterson and minor league catcher Josh Donaldson who was once thought of as a top catching prospect. What are your thoughts on this one? Harden, with his history of injuries is a big risk, but when he is healthy, he can be lights out, with one of the best K/9 numbers in all of baseball. Here's an article from CBS Sports MLB on the trade, just click HERE to read it. Personally, I think that giving up Gaudin as well was a bit much, but you have to like the Cubs competitive nature. You also have to like their reaction time, there are sending a message out to the players, fans and the rest of the league, "The Chicago Cubs are making a run for it in 2008"! You just gotta love I if you're a baseball fan. Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:36:53 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/288359 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/288359 On Monday night, first year Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda needed only 91 pitches to complete a shutout of Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann and the Atlanta Braves. In fact, he came 6 outs away from a perfect game until Mark Teixeira doubled to lead off the 8th inning ( a solid hit by the way). Kuroda followed up that at bat by slamming the door on the remaining six batters, with a little help from his friends behind him, to finish his second complete game shutout of the season. What makes this impressive to me is that he accomplished this feat with under 100 pitches (91 to be exact). That's an utterly dominating performance in my book. What's even more amazing is that he's in his first year playing in the US. This off season, the Dodgers claimed the Japanese free agent, making him a MLB rookie in 2008. If you take into account the change in culture, size difference in the ball between the US & Japan (Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima both mentioned this last year) and you have a player who can defy the odds. Kuroda was a good Japanese player, but not in the same stratosphere as Matsuzaka according to the hype we saw last year in Boston. Personally, I like an underdog and between the two (Matsuzaka and Kuroda), Kuroda would be that underdog, so rooting for him to complete the perfect game was easy. Unlike the predicament I had to be in when I heard about David Wells' perfect game as a member of the Yankees back in 1998 (I don't much like Wells). I even stayed up to after 12:30am to find out the outcome of this one while I watched the MLB Gamecast. For a good article on this game, please read Doug Padilla's article from asahi.com by clicking HERE (yes, it's in English). What are your thoughts about this complete game shutout by Hiroki Kuroda? Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:42:48 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/288083 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/288083 A big trade was announced yesterday that sent 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner C.C. Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers for top prospect OF Matt LaPorta, P Zach Jackson, P Rob Bryson and a player to be named later (click on any of the three players for their numbers). Sabathia will become a free agent after this season and I think that the Yankees will make a big push for him. This now makes the Brewers the front runner to win the NL Central title, barring any injuries to key players. Not only have the Indians traded away their best pitcher, but they just recently designated the 2007 closer with the most saves in Joe Borowski for assignment. This move I applaud them for, Borowski always scared me as a closer! His ERA was too high and he allowed teams to get closer before shutting the door and that type of performance out of your closer is never a good sign and will eventually haunt you in the end. I really don't understand why the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner doesn't net more of a catch. I know he's a free agent at the end of this year, but I was expecting to see at least one major leaguer in the deal going to Cleveland. LaPorta better be the next Josh Hamilton! What are your thoughts about this deal? Who got the better deal? Was it one sided? Share with us your thoughts on the first big trade of the 2008 season! Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:09:24 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/287088 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/287088 Week 14 With 6 HRs, 12 RBIs, 1 SB to go along with a .559 BA and a .583 OBP Brewers SS J.J. Hardy edges out Marlins OF Cody Ross as this past week's hottest hitter. Ross hit 2 HRs while knocking in 16 runs and hitting .500 with a .526 OBP. Rounding out the top half of this week's list are the Rockies LF Matt Holliday who collected 10 RBIs and stole 3 bases, the Reds 2B Brandon Phillips who also knocked in 10 RBIs, but stole 4 bases and the Marlins SS Hanley Ramirez with his 4 HRs and a stolen base of his own. The Yankees All Star 3B Alex Rodriguez hits this list at # 6 but he hit under .300 for the week, but did hit 3 HRs and swiped 3 bases. Next is the Dodgers rookie OF Andre Ethier who scored 10 runs while also hitting 3 HRs. Baltimore's Nick Markakis also scored 10 runs with a HR and hit close to .400 (.389) this week. The Cubs man of many positions, Mark DeRosa, hit 3 HRs while knocking in 10 RBIs to rank 9th on this list. Last, but not least is another Rockies player, fellow OF Brad Hawpe. Brad has been hitting the long ball since his return from the DL and this week was no different as he hit 3 and also swiped a base, too. Unfortunately, he is also the only player in this top 10 to hit under (gulp) .200 for the week (.154), but did host an OBP of .333. As a reminder, I use a 6 metric tool to compile these weekly lists. I use the basic Roto5×5 stats and add OBP to it, just so you know. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:11:19 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/286662 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/286662 MLB recently received two black eyes due to the incidents in Houston between Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon and GM Ed Wade and the other incident also being in Houston, but this time on the visitor's side between Red Sox LF Manny Ramirez and Boston's travelling secretary Jack McCormick. The Houston Astros Incident The Astros incident arose when Chacon had a physical altercation with his GM where the player shoved his GM to the ground. The ESPN story tell of how the GM Wade asked the player Chacon to come into the manager's office (Cecil Cooper) when Chacon proceeded to shove Wade to the ground during an a confrontation when Chacon refused to enter his manager's office. The Boston Red Sox Incident The Boston incident was another argument that ended with the shoving to the ground of a club employee by a player. This time it was over tickets. A team's travelling secretary is the person who can get players tickets for family and friends on the road, when possible. The players usually get allotted tickets for each road game and it is the job of the travelling secretary to act as the team's concierge. This time Ramirez had asked for 16 tickets on game day and when McCormick told him that it might not be possible, the ESPN story, based on the original story in the Providence Journal, said that a confrontation began and ended with Ramirez shoving McCormick (who's around 30 years older than Ramirez) to the ground. Ramirez has since apologized and the team has said to have handled this incident internally. My Thoughts Personally, I have no problem with these teams penalizing these players. In fact, in the case of the Red Sox, I don't think that they were as strict as they should have been with Ramirez or if they were, they kept it very quiet. Ramirez recently had an altercation with teammate and Red Sox 1B Kevin Youkilis in the Boston dugout during a game against the Rays where Ramirez slapped Youkilis in the face. Given the fact that the team has explored their options of parting company with the left fielder in the past (they had once tried to release him outright a few years ago, but no one claimed him) and these two incidents and I wouldn't be surprised if they do not pick up the club option for him for 2009. In general, I am disturbed at how professional athletes, who are in the public eye, behave. To me, although they are just regular people with special athletic ability, they should still be more aware of their influence on society and therefore, handle themselves more appropriately. Now maybe I'm speaking like the father of six that I am, but also as a fan of the game who wants to see it played with respect, these incidents concern me. If I care about the sport, they should concern me. Most younger players don't seem to have as much respect for the game as players once did. Maybe it's the money or maybe it's the agents, which indirectly is also about the money or maybe it's just how teams and ownership treat the players now given the higher investments they have in their product as opposed to in years past. MLB is getting stricter with its drug policy and the next step should then be a crackdown on incidents like these in an attempt to protect the integrity of the game from its reckless youth in which it relies so heavily on. Maybe the minors should implement a program on the history of the game with an emphasis on a healthy respect of the game that we all love. What do you all think? Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:03:39 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285973 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285973 This week's Baseball Links Exchange will focus on Out in the Desert, an MVN site on the Arizona Diamondbacks authored by Devin Jessup and Nicholas Cote. Here is the author's bio on Nick from the Authors page (Devin doesn't have a listed bio here): Nick is currently in his senior year at Providence College, where he studies political science and serves as president of the Debate Society and vice president of the political science honor society. When not at school in the middle of Red Sox Nation, Nick resides in Las Vegas, making his love for the Diamondbacks a bit more manageable. He spends far too much time in front of the television. The Diamondbacks are a team that I really like. I like the direction they are taking as an organization (the youth movement) and I like the way they play and they have a young GM in Josh Byrnes, too. In my opinion, all they need to be a serious contender is a veteran presence in the clubhouse, preferably a player in the starting line up. A player in the Derek Jeter mold would be a positive influence and may just give them the confidence they need to go deep into the playoffs. I picked this MVN (Most Valuable Network) hosted blog due to the quality that the people at MVN produce. Check them out by either clicking HERE or any of the other three of their links on this page. Enjoy! Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:28:59 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285323 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285323 Atlanta's 1B Mark Teixeira hit 6 HRs last week while driving in 11 runs and hit .429 with an OBP of .571 to take this past week's top spot for hitter of the week. The Rays' rookie sensation had another good week hitting 4 HRs while driving in 12 runs of his own and he hit .424 with a stolen base. Number three on this list with 3 stolen bases is Yankee OF Bobby Abreu. His complete line was 6/2/9/3/.478/.571 (R/HR/RBI/SB/BA/OBP). The 4th & 5th guys on this list both play for the Sox and had 2 stolen bases. They are Boston's minuete 2B Dustin Pedroia and White Sox RF Jermaine Dye. Rounding out the bottom 5 of this top 10 list are Met's 3B David Wright, Toronto 3B Scott Rolen, Rays' LF Carl Crawford, Mets' 1B Carlos Delgado and Boston's 3B Mike Lowell. Player Tm Pos R HR RBI SB Avg OB% Totals Mark Teixeira ATL 1B 8 6 11 0 .429 .571 26.000 Evan Longoria TB 3B 8 4 12 1 .424 .444 25.868 Bobby Abreu NYY OF 6 2 9 3 .478 .571 21.049 Dustin Pedroia BOS 2B 8 2 5 2 .594 .606 18.200 Jermaine Dye CWS OF 6 2 7 2 .423 .500 17.923 David Wright NYM 3B 5 3 9 0 .417 .483 17.900 Scott Rolen TOR 3B 5 3 9 0 .360 .448 17.808 Carl Crawford TB OF 7 3 6 1 .273 .314 17.587 Carlos Delgado NYM 1B 4 3 10 0 .138 .242 17.380 Mike Lowell BOS 3B 7 1 8 0 .500 .545 17.045 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:13:34 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/284224 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/284224 I haven't had much to say for a while. Why the long silence? Well, I wanted to put some distance between myself and the World Series before commenting on it. Now that it's been a couple of weeks, I have something to say. I've been knocking around for the last 12 days feeling like something is missing from my life. It finally dawned on me that keeping up with the baseball playoffs has been the equivalent of a part-time job! No wonder I get to the evenings and can't figure out what to do with myself. I've been heading off to bed as early as 8 or 9pm! The season is over, yet my soul isn't satisfied! I've been spending the last few days trying to decide why that is. . . In many ways, it was a great season. The down-to-the-wire races in the National League really set the stage for a great playoff show. I was expecting each series to be claw-your-way-to-the-next-level style baseball. Instead, it was sweep, sweep, and more sweep in both the division and league championship series. With the exception of the Boston-Cleveland series, which went 7 games, the other battles remained lop-sided. And then the Rockies, who emerged victorious after their consecutive sweeps in the National League play-offs, were completely bowled over by the Red Sox in the World Series. I can sum up baseball's need to deliver a quality post-season with 3 words, quoted from the movie Field of Dreams: GO THE DISTANCE! The World Series championship will inevitably be awarded to the team whose pitching staff, offense and defense can endure the 3 extra high pressure series which make up the post-season (this amounts to potentially 19 additional games-nearly 12% of a regular season). We're talking about a month's worth of overtime here. Unfortunately, some teams are up to the task and some are not. There have been occasional teams who have won it all without much post-season experience as a whole (Florida Marlins in 2003). But for the most part, playing in the post-season is like parenting. No matter how much you try to plan in advance, there is nothing that can prepare you except for the actual experience. That's when you find out if you have what it takes. This year, Colorado didn't. They were running on adrenaline and momentum (huge factors in sports). But, when the adrenaline settled down, there was no picking it back up to face Boston with the playoff experience and confidence the Red Sox have accumulated. The Rockies could consider 2007 their "first child" and hopefully learn from their mistakes this year. Perhaps 2008 will give them their 2nd child to put into practice what they missed this time around. The same could be said for Arizona and Philadelphia. If these teams can prepare themselves to go the distance, which means potentially 181 games, we will have a World Series that the whole country can enjoy and savor all post season. That is NOT what we are left with here in the early days of November 2007. It is what needs to be addressed. The fall classic has got to be a matchup of the best of the best. I'm looking for a nail-biting, low scoring feast of all that makes baseball great. I don't want to be distracted from it to discuss which manager was let go or which player is opting out of his contract. I want to be so entranced by the series that I don't care about the future of eliminated teams. I want pure, unadulterated baseball that has the stamina to go the distance. World Series sweeps should be rare and special. When they're common, it's no good for baseball. The World Series has been swept 5 out of the last 10 years- 3 out of the last 4!! However, I will allow this: major league baseball as a whole still has work to do and that is a good thing. The World Series and the playoffs would be meaningless if they didn't give us a taste of the amazing stamina needed to win. The World Series is still the biggest stage of baseball. The playoffs are so critical that every inning has meaning and consequence. The post season is set up so that no one can reach, let alone win, the fall classic on a fluke. There is a high standard set. This aspect is good for baseball. The clout of the World Series title is exactly where it should be: reachable only by the teams with the most stamina when it matters, the teams able to play under the most strain and pressure. I'm looking for October matchups that go the distance. I'm looking for a few good teams. Who will deliver? Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:49:52 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279914 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279914 Fair Warning: This is one of my major league pet peeves! The use of the modern day bullpen is a sore point with me. In my opinion, this practice is holding baseball back from gaining more widespread popularity. In order to gain more attention, all unnecessary down time needs to be eliminated. It is my opinion that the length of the games prevents people from becoming fans. The game can be just too darn long for the non-fan to cope with. One of these bottlenecks is the unnecessary use of bullpen "specialists" (I use that term loosely). A "specialist" is a pitcher who comes in just to face one batter and then is replaced by another pitcher who happens to throw with the other arm. If you are a major league pitcher, you should be able to get out major league batters no matter which batter's box they're standing in! This is a situation where I throw Sabermetrics out the window. To me this was the idea of a few managers, which worked so well at the time that everyone jumped on the bandwagon to the point where this practice has become the norm for the modern day bullpen. This development, as best as I can pin point it, started sometime in 1987 with the Oakland A's when they converted SP Dennis Eckersley into a closer. He only got 16 saves that year, but it was a turning point in baseball history. I don't blame Eckersley, I blame the way in which he was used. I blame, right or wrong, Tony LaRussa! I also admit that it was and is a very successful method for getting batters out, but at what price, long-term for baseball? One inning and out granted Eckersley and all other closers who followed him, a "save". It has gotten to the point where one can gain a save even in a 30-3 game! Before this, closers went at least 2 or 3 innings per save. Guys like Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, Tug McGraw, Hoyt Wilhelm, Sparky Lyle and Dick Radatz, to name a few. They came to the rescue in close game situations and shut down the opposing team and they broke a sweat doing it! Every now and then, you see someone used the way those guys were used; Mariano Rivera, one of the best modern day closers is known for his occasional 2 or 3 inning saves. We even saw young Jonathan Papelbon going multiple innings in 2007 (especially in the post season). I'll speak on this topic again when I address the problems with the saves rule, but for now, let's get back to bullpen "specialists".This is what Wikipedia has to say about Left Handed Specialists: In baseball, a left-handed specialist (also called, somewhat derisively, a LOOGY or Lefty One Out Guy) is a left-handed relief pitcher who specializes in getting left-handed or poor right handed switch batters out. These pitchers will commonly only pitch to a very small number of batters in each outing (often just one), and rarely to straight right-handed batters. Most Major League Baseball teams have a couple of left-handed pitchers in their bullpens, one of whom is probably a left-handed specialist. Why not just bring in the best pitcher you have, outside of your closer, to pitch to the next few players coming up to bat in order to get out of an inning. I don't mind if teams bring in a new pitcher to start an inning, but to break up the flow of the game by allowing a pitcher to just face one batter seems silly to me. It always has and it always will. So my conclusion is that teams should do a better job in setting up their bullpens so that they are staffed with pitchers who can get batters of any type out and use closers in a way that most benefits their team, not just in the ninth inning against the other teams 7- 8 and 9 guys. Even a "specialist" can get those guys out! A word to lefty and righty specialists out there: learn how to pitch to get guys out no matter which batter's box they stand in and let's just play ball! Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:43:19 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279912 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279912